Late Night Open Thread
By Bronwyn's Harbor on August 2, 2010 at 2:30 AM in Current Affairs
As usual, I’m sharing a smattering of stories that I’ve discovered and want to share with you. You’re invited to do the same.
Below you’ll find President Obama’s self-assessment on his presidency to date. But, first: CNN has run some disturbing stories on BP’s “carpet bombing” of the Gulf with dispersants and on Gulf residents’ views of the reports that the oil spill is rapidly disappearing, creating a false sense that the Gulf waters are returning to normal. The “carpet bombing” video is below the fold. First, here’s a report from CNN’s Jim Acosta, speaking with “boat captain Mike Frenette about the oil still unaccounted for after the Gulf spill.”
President Obama? Yes, I agree. He is an “incomplete” president. From CNN Politic’s “Obama gives himself a grade of ‘incomplete’ after 18 months“:
It’s still too early to judge his administration, President Barack Obama says.
In an interview broadcast on the CBS “Sunday Morning” program, Obama gave himself a grade of “incomplete” on the first 18 months of his presidency. [...]
Asked if he felt his administration wasn’t getting the credit it deserved, he laughed and answered, “Yes,” then offered an explanation.
Coming out of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Americans still want to see a full recovery before they’ll believe the worst is over, Obama said.
“People have every right to be scared, to be angry, to be frustrated,” he said. “I don’t expect the American people to be satisfied when we’re only half of the way back.” …
Good. We are not satisfied. But, more worrisome, we don’t have confidence that you’ll accomplish a “full recovery,” particularly given the massively expensive new programs like the health care act that you forced through Congress.
And the public’s confidence in you dropped dramatically as we watched your hands-off approach to the oil spill, especially in the first critical days.
Here’s the CNN report on BP’s massive spread of dispersants, from its special section on the oil spill:
From the CNN story, “Report: BP used excessive dispersants in Gulf oil spill“:
(CNN) — New documents released by a congressional subcommittee indicate that Coast Guard officials allowed BP to use excessive amounts of chemical dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico. [...]
Despite a federal directive restricting their use, the Coast Guard routinely granted exemptions, said Rep. Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee.
[...]
“BP carpet bombed the ocean with these chemicals, and the Coast Guard allowed them to do it,” Markey said in a statement Saturday. “After we discovered how toxic these chemicals really are, they had no business being spread across the Gulf in this manner.”
The exemptions granted “were in no way rare,” Markey said in a letter to retired Adm. Thad Allen, the former commandant of the Coast Guard who is now overseeing the federal response to the oil spill.
The Coast Guard approved more than 74 exemptions in 48 days, Markey said. In one instance, Coast Guard officials allowed the oil giant to use a larger volume of dispersants than it had applied for, he said.
Dispersants are “a toxic stew of chemicals, oil and gas, with impacts that are not well understood,” Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, said in the letter to Allen. …
The report also details how numbers were fudged or, perhaps, were simply inaccurate.
Will we ever learn, fully, how this “toxic stew” has and will continue to affect life in the Gulf waters? And what is its impact on humans near the Gulf?
Particularly disturbing are the videos of the marsh areas swimming in oil. Here’s one more video that features interviews with local officials concerned about the “disappearing” oil:
Will the media continue to cover this story, or has it become old news already? Except for CNN, I haven’t noticed much media coverage of the Gulf spill lately.
by Ronald Scott
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